Mash-Up Round-Up: Bilingual in the Womb!
The week of March 5, 2016 was Jay Allen making us laugh so hard we cried; mildly freaking out over Snapchat’s face swapping; and meditating on The Great Bagel Diaspora. Also, we just found out that Nat King Cole sang a rendition of “Arirang,” basically the national anthem of Korea, in the 60s. Our brain may have exploded.
Oh and hey, we were on the radio talking about the Oscars!
Mash-Ups In The News:
After Super Tuesday, Americans Frantically Google “Moving to Canada”
Apparently increased googling of “Moving to Canada” is a common part of any election, but usually happens closer to election day, not 8 months prior. It was so intense that the Canadian immigration website experienced severe slowdowns after Super Tuesday.
viva Vox
Colorado Town Will Use Weed Revenue for Latino Scholarships
Taxes from mota, marimba y hierba will help Latinos in Pueblo, Colo., go to college. Turns out making things legal and taxing them might have serious benefits!
Via Fusion
Koreans in L.A. Battle Over Community Center
This political infighting, which includes guns and lawsuits, sounds like it’s been pulled straight out of a Korean drama. But the reason to read this story is the description of everybody’s side hustles and businesses. Wig entrepreneurs FTW!
via LA Times
“If people glance twice at me in America, it’s usually because they recognize my work as an actor (or the work of a different Indian actor, or because I remind them of some Indian guy they happen to know). But in India, it was because the locals could tell I wasn’t from around those parts.”
via NY Times
Our Ability to Speak Begins in the Womb
Babies listen preferentially to the languages they hear in the womb. And then they speak them more easily. And then our Mash-Up babies are multilingual and that is the best. They also react to the theme songs of TV shows they “watched” in utero. Science!
via The World
How Traveling the World Made Conan O’Brien a Star
Conan is the late night host for our Mash-Up-travelling-nerd hearts. His travels to Cuba, Korea and Armenia have made us laugh and cry and feel seen. Also, we just learned that he wrote the “Monorail” episode of the Simpsons. Hallelujah!
via Washington Post
Life in the Only Industrialized Country Without Paid Maternity Leave
Oh hi, that’s Amrika we are talking about. In Uzbekistan and Latin America new mothers have 40 days where they are expected to do nothing but be nursed back to health (and nurse babies). In Korea it’s 21 days of bed rest. Here? No rules. This article is devastating.
via The Atlantic
Ashok Kondabolu and Hua Hsu on Asian Cosmetics, Chinatowns and “Master of None”
via Asian American Writers’ Workshop
“My friend and I briefly had this zine we were making called ‘Failed Asian American Sitcom Treatments.’ It was just jokes and puns involving Asian names. But while I was doing that, I came up with a list of everyone I could think of. So there was Ming-Na Wen.”
#LongRead: The Weight of James Arthur Baldwin
An exploration of the French life of James Baldwin, the wondrous gay, Black writer who spoke clear truths about race, sexuality, patriotism and more smack dab in the middle of the 20th Century. Beautiful.
via Buzzfeed
